En­gi­neers are de­sign­ing a new breed of plan­e­tary ex­plor­ers: ti­ny, shape-shift­ing de­vices that ride the wind like dust par­t­i­cles and al­so to com­mu­ni­cate, fly in for­ma­tion and take sci­en­tif­ic mea­sure­ments.The specks might even be the first ex­plor­ers from Earth to vis­it plan­ets out­side our so­lar sys­tem, the de­sign­ers claim.
A “smart” dust par­t­i­cle would con­sist of a com­put­er chip about a millimeter wide en­cased in a pol­y­mer ma­te­ri­al that wrin­kles or smooth’s out when elec­tri­cal­ly ... [full story]

After studying Mars four times as long as originally planned, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter appears to have succumbed to battery failure caused by a complex sequence of events involving the onboard computer memory and ground commands.
Mars Global Surveyor - NASA photo The causes were released today in a preliminary report by an internal review board. The board was formed to look more in-depth into why NASA's Mars Global Surveyor went silent in November 2006 ... [full story]

SAN DIEGO - The way his Navy handlers see it, Strober the sea lion has a pretty good life.
Like the other sea lions and dolphins in the Navy's marine-mammal program at Point Loma Naval Base, he has his own room, a 30-by-30-foot enclosure in San Diego Bay. His space includes a dock he can climb on to soak up some rays. He can swim to other rooms to hang out with his buddies.
Each ... [full story]

VERBATIM
"One is always a long way from solving a problem until one actually has the answer."
- Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist
PRIME NUMBERS
13: Maximum velocity, in miles per hour, at which a woodpecker's head (and brain) travel before striking a tree
100: Amount of heat energy, measured in watts, that a sedentary human gives off per second
PRIME NUMBERS - A woodpecker's head goes 13 mph before pecking a tree. CNS ... [full story]

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A new study by paleoclimatologists at Oregon State University adds credence to the theory that the ocean current patterns, which keep Europe warm, may be forced to slow or stop – victims of a surge of fresh water and reduced salinity in the North Atlantic Ocean.
Research just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a professional journal, provides new data that indicate why these current patterns changed in the ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - NASA is preparing to launch the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) spacecraft, the first mission dedicated to exploration of mysterious ice clouds that dot the edge of space in Earth's polar regions. These clouds have grown brighter and more prevalent in recent years and some scientists suggest that changes in these clouds may be the result of climate change. The first opportunity for launch is on Wednesday, April 25 from Vandenberg ... [full story]

CORVALLIS – Biochemists at Oregon State University have discovered that a little-known type of chemical bond called a “halogen bond” can be used to control and manipulate the three dimensional shape of DNA, opening the door to new types of engineering at the atomic level.
The findings, just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a professional journal, may be a significant step forward for the emerging science of nanotechnology.
The study found ... [full story]

HOUSTON - Two Expedition 15 cosmonauts and a spaceflight participant aboard a Soyuz spacecraft docked with the Earth-facing port on the International Space Station's Zarya module at 2:10 p.m. CDT Monday. After the hatch opens, which is scheduled for a little before 4 p.m., Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. businessman, will be greeted by the station's current crew, Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and ... [full story]

HOUSTON – Two Russian cosmonauts and a space flight participant launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:31 p.m. CDT Saturday for a two-day flight to the International Space Station.Less than 10 minutes after launch their spacecraft reached orbit and its antennas and solar arrays deployed. The Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft is scheduled to dock at the station at a little after 3 p.m. Monday.
Once they arrive at the station, ... [full story]

Sci­en­tists are wor­ried that a dis­ease as­so­ci­at­ed with dev­as­tat­ing me­di­e­val epi­demics may make a come­back as a weap­on.An ar­ti­cle in this week’s is­sue of the med­i­cal jour­nal The Lan­cet dis­cusses the pos­si­bil­i­ty that the bac­te­ri­um re­spon­si­ble for plague—known in the Mid­dle Ages as the Black Death—could serve as a bioter­ror­ism agent.
Infections from the mi­crobe, Yer­si­nia pes­tis, take sev­er­al forms.In the ar­ti­cle, Mike Pren­tice of Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege in Cork, Ire­land and Li­la Ra­hal­i­son of the ... [full story]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The next launch of the space shuttle from Florida has been delayed until June, NASA announced Tuesday.
The Atlantis' external fuel tank was hit by hail on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 26. Engineers have been repairing the insulating foam, which was damaged in more than 2,600 spots.
Wayne Hale, director of the space shuttle program, said the shuttle could be rolled out as early as ... [full story]

HOUSTON - The Expedition 14 crew of the International Space Station was busy this week performing fitness evaluations, working on scientific experiments and preparing for the arrival of the Expedition 15 crew.Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin, Expedition 15 commander, and Oleg Kotov, Expedition 15 flight engineer, and spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. businessman, are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at approximately 12:30 p.m. CDT Saturday. Their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft is scheduled to ... [full story]

PRIME NUMBERS
16 - Percentage of global diet met by fish consumption.
29 - Percentage of the world's fished species that have lost at least 90 percent of their peak populations.
2048 - Year by which the world's seafood will run out, at current rates of decline.
BRAIN SWEAT - Which are more valuable: 2000 pennies or 2001 pennies? CNS Photo.
WHERE IN THE WORLD? - This is a picture of the Caravelas River in ... [full story]